Manchester Super Giants 2026 Preview: RPSG’s New Project

Manchester Originals became Manchester Super Giants for 2026 after the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group bought 70% of the franchise from Lancashire County Cricket Club for a reported £81m — extending an ownership portfolio that already includes Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and, for followers closer to home in India, Mohun Bagan Super Giant.

Ownership and Background

Lancashire became the first host county to sell down its Hundred stake, retaining 30% ownership while RPSG took operational control. The franchise continues to play home fixtures at Emirates Old Trafford, a ground that’s produced some of the format’s biggest individual scores.

Squad Overview

Squad: Noor Ahmad, Jos Buttler, Heinrich Klaasen, Liam Dawson, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Leus du Plooy, Tom Hartley, Aiden Markram, Josh Tongue, Tim Seifert, Tom Moores, Max Holden, Tawanda Muyeye, George Scrimshaw, Paul Walter

The Headline Names

Jos Buttler, signed for £350,000, headlines the roster and gives Manchester Super Giants one of the format’s most destructive top-order options — a player capable of changing a game’s complexion inside the first twenty balls of an innings. Heinrich Klaasen adds further power through the middle order, while wicketkeeping depth from Tim Seifert and Tom Moores gives the franchise genuine flexibility in how it sequences its batting.

Aiden Markram, South Africa’s T20I captain, arrived for £200,000 in one of the auction’s more competitive overseas bidding wars — a signing that adds both batting stability and a genuine leadership option to the squad. Noor Ahmad provides left-arm wrist-spin variety that’s become increasingly prized in white-ball cricket generally, and specifically valuable in a format where containing run-scoring through the middle overs is at a premium.

What to Watch

RPSG’s recruitment philosophy across its other franchises — Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and Mohun Bagan Super Giant in Indian football — has generally favoured building around a small core of genuine match-winners rather than spreading spend evenly across a roster. The Buttler and Klaasen signings suggest a similar approach here: fewer marquee names, but enough firepower at the top of the order to compensate for a squad that’s lighter on depth than some rivals.

Old Trafford’s flat, high-scoring surfaces should suit this top-order-heavy approach, but it puts real pressure on the bowling unit — Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue and Sonny Baker will need to defend competitive totals against sides with similar batting depth.

Key Fixtures

Manchester Super Giants open their 2026 campaign at home to London Spirit on 23 July at Old Trafford — an early test against a London Spirit squad built around its own set of high-profile auction buys.

The Bigger Picture

For RPSG, Manchester Super Giants represents a third active global franchise brand, and the group’s track record of turning Lucknow Super Giants into a competitive IPL side inside a few seasons will be the natural comparison as this project develops. Season one, under an entirely new coaching and recruitment structure, is as much about establishing an identity as it is about immediate results — but a squad with Buttler, Klaasen and Markram at its core gives Manchester Super Giants a genuine chance to be competitive from the opening round.